Georgetown Cupcake Giveaway Celebrates Reality Show

By Rebecca Sheir

A local bakery is celebrating the premiere of its new reality-TV show by giving out free cupcakes all day. The new show, called D.C. Cupcakes, will take viewers behind the scenes of Georgetown Cupcake.

Walking into Georgetown Cupcake is like walking into a cupcake beauty pageant. The counter is piled with dainty cupcakes boasting swirly plumes of frosting and smatterings of coconut and sprinkles.

But as the store's catering manager, Jessie Conradi, points out, as with any pageant, there's quite a bit of to-do backstage, if you will.

"We were always thinking of calling it, like 'Unfrosted,'" she says. "You know, sometimes there can definitely be drama that goes on behind the scenes."

"Unfrosted" didn't make the cut. Instead, the six-part series on The Learning Channel is titled D.C. Cupcakes. It chronicles the adventures of Georgetown Cupcakes' founders, sisters Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis.

"They quit their corporate jobs and they opened the bakery," says Conradi. "And it was really small; they didn't expect that they would get a lot of business. And then just the communities really embraced the cupcakes!"

And that embrace is in full force today. Sharon Van Blarcum of Waldorf, Maryland, is nearing the head of the line that snakes down the sidewalk outside the shop. In addition to picking up her free cupcake, she says she's buying some to go.

"The chocolate peanut-butter chip, the lemon blossom, the red velvet," she reads from her shopping list. "And hopefully they won't melt by the time we get them home!"

That is, if she actually gets them home. While many customers walk away from the counter bearing boxes of wrapped cupcakes, most of them have lifted the lid, stuck in a finger and snuck a sweet taste before even leaving the shop.